The Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) announced the winners of its ‘Heads Up, Phones Down’ video contest for high school students.
Students encouraged their peers to avoid cell phone use and distractions while driving in public service announcement-style videos. MCDOT received 200 entries. Any public or private school student was able to submit a video, whether individually or in a group, in both English and Spanish.
The Winning Videos
Anjolaoluwa Adeleke from Walter Johnson High School won the grand prize and an Apple MacBook Air for his video “HUPD Music Video” in the individual category.
Platon Tsislav, also from Walter Johnson, was awarded first funner-up and an Apple Watch for his video “Crossing the Road.” Jason Konercnik, a student at Northwood High School, won second runner-up for “Don’t Distract your Driver.”
In the group category, Erol Kalayoglu, Zachary Carter and Ian Ha from Montgomery Blair High School took home the grand prize and an $800 Visa gift card for their video “Silence your phone Not a heartbeat”. Aaron Silberglitt and Ryan Silberglitt from Paint Branch High School won first runner-up for their video “It’s Never Worth The Risk.” Shaina Asuncion and Yvette Larios from Gaithersburg High School won second runner-up for their video “Pay Attention.” They received a 400 and $200 Visa gift card respectively.
Here’s the video “Silence your phone, Not a heartbeat”:
Awards Presented
Members of the MCDOT Pedestrian Safety team surprised the grand prize winners at their high schools on Friday, March 15 with balloons and cheers.
MCDOT’s Duwan Morris interviews the individual and group winners in this video:
In a news release announcing the winners, MCDOT Director Chris Conklin said car crashes injure more than 1,700 teens and kill 16 annually in Maryland.
“Distracted driving is a key factor in many of these collisions. It’s not only risky behavior, but it can also be deadly. These videos help to get the message out to our teens and remind them of the need for attentiveness behind the wheel,”Conklin said in the release.”
The MCDOT Heads Up, Phones Down website features the winning videos and photos of the students.
Related:
County Challenges Teens to Create Safe Driving Videos With ‘Heads Up, Phones Down’ Contest
